Brooklyn based duo Christy & Emily release their third record produced by Hans Joachim Irmler of Faust at Klangbad Studios in Scheer, Germany. Here’s the story of how it all came about:

Back in 2007 Christy & Emily were about to release their debut album, Gueen’s Head, on New York label The Social Registry and they were booked to open for the legendary Nightingales. For those who don’t know the legend of the Nightingales, they are the brain spawn of Robert Lloyd, infamous Birmingham native and John Peel favorite. He had been on the scene since 1977 with a band called The Prefects, who played with all the heavy hitters: The Clash, Buzzcocks, The Slits. The Prefects matured into the Nightingales during the 80’s, and when NY DJ Dan Selzer reissued the old Prefects canon, he booked them a tour in the US and got them a show in Brooklyn. Enter Christy & Emily.

One wouldn’t think that a post-punker like Lloyd would dig two girls singing intimate songs, but they floored him. He waltzed up to them after their show and said, “Will you come to Europe with me?”

Fast forward to August 2008. Christy & Emily play the Klangbad festival, three days of every kind of music one can drink in with German lager, all curated by Hans Joachim Irmler, the mastermind keyboardist of prog rock staple Faust. Christy & Emily play to a large crowd; open-mouthed, silent, listening, mesmerized by the duo’s enchanting dynamic. After the festival Irmler invites C&E to his studio to record a brand new album for his label, Klangbad. No Rest is that album.

The Music

No Rest starts dark but promptly spatters the listener with light – greens and golds, harmony and dissonance. “Beast” is an unconventional rocker with its Brazilian baiao rhythm seated in a psychedelic netherworld. “Guava Tree” is a suicide ballad, invoking the sordid tales in the Harry Smith Anthology. There is a mellow intensity in “Firefly” that is dissipated by the mystic corridors of “Cave.” Although the “Amaryllis” chords are borrowed from Schumann and Liszt this song’s chorus has a nod to Brian Wilson.

The vocals of the album are lovingly attended to by Irmler. Each track, each voice, each overdub is treated with an individual style. In it we hear not only C&E expressing themselves, but Irmler as well. No Rest is in fact C&E’s third release. Their second effort, Superstition, was quietly put out in November 2009 through Robert Lloyd’s label, Big Print. It got a lot of love in reviews, but not a lot of distribution. No Rest should have both.

The Duo

Christy learned to play guitar from a Metallica Ride The Lightning tablature book, and started playing in bands during her stay at the Rhode Island School of Design. She got exposed to a lot of good and noisy bands going to shows at the now extinct Fort Thunder. Upon moving to New York she started a band called the Lil’ Fighters, who self released two works: the vinyl only Boys & Girls and the CD Freedom School. The band’s original keyboardist, Walter Martin, eventually left to tour with his other project, The Walkmen. He was replaced by Emily Manzo, and this was the beginning of the current C&E.

Christy also plays guitar and sings in a punk band called the Totallys that gigs regularly in NYC. She mentors in an after school program called the Vibe Songmakers, helping students to write their own songs. In addition she was the drummer for a psych rock band called the Sumerians, and much of the drumming on the Lil’ Fighters recordings is she. Her animated video for the C&E song “105& Rising” was premiered on the TheFader.com, and her drawings have been shown and sold at the Scope Art Fair in New York.

Emily is a classically trained pianist who has studied at the New England Conservatory, the Oberlin Conservatory and Columbia University. In September 2009 her recording of the entire works of Anton Webern for soprano and piano with Jody Pou was released on the Shsk’h label to international acclaim. Her collaboration with filmmaker Paul Rowley has blossomed into a feature-length film entitled The Rooms, which will have its premiere in 2010.

The New York Times has called Emily’s playing “superb” and Time Out New York has commented on her role as a “protean force with the ability to move two scenes at once.” She has contributed to the recordings and live performances of Brooklyn rock bands Oneida (Jagjaguar) and Oakley Hall (Merge) and has premiered the music of Elliott Sharp, Susie Ibarra, Matt Welch and many others. She is a founding member of Till by Turning, a chamber ensemble dedicated to creating educational resources for new music and is also a mentor for the Vibe Songmakers after-school program.

"Lover's Talk" and "Superstition" come on like benign, soft-edged pop with ghosty bits of melody held together by heavenly harmonies. But there's something unsettling beneath the Wurlitzer organ wub-wub and Christy's reverb-drenched guitar. Doomy minor chords jut out and harmonies diverge as the two ladies sing of evil thoughts and bad dreams. Before long, their overt innocence feels like a crafty, almost creepy shadow play.”

–Jessica Hopper, SPIN

“Christy & Emily’s music is like night air — calmly moving, a gentle swirl of warm and cool, a surrounding thing. “Lover’s Talk,” the beautiful first offering from Superstition, the Brooklyn psych-folk duo’s sophomore album, hits new heights in shimmer, with their voices hovering lucidly above a reverb-glaze of picked guitar and plinked keyboards. Bass, drums, loud audiences — not missed. This is private music for public settings. The album comes via the UK label Big Print next month, and once you've sat a spell with the song, you'll know there'll be something else to be thankful for come then.”–Mike Wolf, RCRD LBL

"Like the Wonder Twins or a Reeses peanut butter cup, theirs is an interesting partnership for the strikingly different abilities and musical flavors these two multi-instrumentalists bring to the studio and stage. Gueen's Head, the product of their work, isn't just "rock" versus "classical," but interpretive versus creative, mood versus hook, song versus sound.... The album [Gueen's Head] sounds like indie pared down to its DIY basics: eight patiently paced songs creating a rainy-day minimalism."–Stephen M. Deusner, Pitchfork

"Like Arthur Russell jamming with Galaxy 500."–Evan Andrews

"They play music that switches between melodious reverberating wurlitzer and choppy, aggressive guitar with sweetly yearning vocals that bask in repetition and self-realization." –Everett True, Plan B

All songs by Christy & Emilyexcept “Here Comes the Water Now”by Tom Brosseau, unabridged music (ASCAP)Recorded at Faust Studio in Scheer, Germany, August 2008Produced and mixed by Hans Joachim IrmlerEngineered by Andreas Schmid